Australian Open Draw Released

Former Tennessee All-Americans Rhyne Williams and John-Patrick Smith learned their opponents for next week's Australian Open.

The draw was released Thursday evening (Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia). Both Vols received main draw wild cards and are in the third quarter of the 128-man tournament, meaning they should play their opening matches Tuesday.

Williams, who got his wild card for winning the USTA Wild Card Playoff in December, takes on 25th-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany. Smith was added to the draw late last week by his home nation and takes on Portugal's Joao Souza in the first round. Smith lost to Souza in three sets in the final round of qualifying last week at the ATP event in Sydney.

This will be Smith's Grand Slam singles debut, having played doubles in last year's Australian Open. It will be the first time multiple Tennessee players have been in a Grand Slam main draw since associate head coach Chris Woodruff and Doug Flach both played in the 1997 Wimbledon.

Tennys Sandgren plays the second round of Australian Open qualifying late tonight against Alex Bogomolov.